MegaPath Doubles Down on Copper

Megapath (news) is increasing its commitment to copper, and especially Ethernet over Copper. They intend to add EoC in 15 markets this year, and another 35 by the end of 2011. They also expect to add more than 300 central offices this year, and are 'laying a foundation for adding products beyond Ethernet over copper (EoC) such asVDSL2, and Clear Channel T1.'

It's a reminder that despite the fact that VSG saw a surge to 27% of buildings having fiber connections, the majority do not have it and likely will not have it anytime soon. And many don't need it, not all businesses need the kind of bandwidth fiber brings, they just need more than one can get with a couple of T1's. Hence, EoC's 2-20Mbps range is actually gaining some traction.

Today's MegaPath, of course, emerged from the triple merger last summer of Covad, SpeakEasy, and the former (smaller) MegaPath. They have been relatively quiet since, but I do think it's possible they may participate in some further consolidation this summer.

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It remains all about the last mile, or in some cases the few hundred feet from the curb to the demarc. Until Fiber is as common as 24/7 coverage of Charlie Sheen, we use the physical plant in place. EOC has been a pretty good solution for some.

Take a look at the link below for details on how fast a DOCSIS 3.0 link can be. That’s right – it’s the cable companies that are giving their customers a rotten deal on the uplink. If a building has a coax line running to a fiber node then that building could have 100 Mbit/sec (HektaMega) symmetric service without installing fiber for the final leg. There are issues (cable ownership, number of cables / fan-out point, premises wiring, pricing) but for some people dropping CATV in favor of IPTV might be viable.